Seongsan Ilchulbong

Day 7 of Quiring-family visit

On the morning of Wednesday July 4, after a good sleep and some breakfast, our little group had to decide which attraction to see first on Jeju Island. Jonathan and I asked the hotel receptionist for directions to the nearest tourist information center, and easily found it a few intersections just down the street. There we were given maps and brochures of famous Jeju-do attractions. "Is it far to this place?" I asked, pointing in our guide book to the words Seongan Ilchulbong. "If you don't have a car," one of the helpers answered, "you have to get there by bus." We got directions to the intercity bus station and went back to the hotel to share what we'd learned. After talking over a few options, we decided to head to Seongsan Ilchulbong, a famous extinct volcano on the very eastern tip of the island. Off we walked down the street to the nearest city bus stop. Since we all had T-money cards, paying for our bus fare was as simple as scanning the small plastic tab as we entered the bus. We asked the driver to let us know when we reached the intercity bus station, and about five or ten minutes later we arrived, hopped off the bus, and went inside to buy tickets. Luckily for us, we were able to use our T-money cards to pay for the intercity bus tickets, too, which Jonathan and I hadn't ever been able to do on the mainland. That was surprising, but nice. After waiting for about 20 minutes, we boarded our bus and were off on our adventure.

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Posing with a Jeju 'grandfather' (Photo by Glenda Quiring)

Figuring out our bus route and buying tickets (Photo by Glenda Quiring)

Getting off the bus (Photo by Glenda Quiring)

The route was scenic and we all enjoyed watching the tropical landscape roll past. About an hour later we arrived at a stop our driver told us was our final destination. We got out, seeing the large green mountain a ways in front of us, and started to walk towards it. Later we realized that we could have stayed on the bus for another stop or two, but we were naive and had jumped off early. After a fair walk, we arrived at a little gazebo overlooking the ocean and near the entrance to get to the mountain. After a bite of oranges and some other food we had brought with us to refresh ourselves, we walked the rest of the short distance to the mountain. After paying admission, we asked another tourist to snap a couple pictures of the five of us. Then we started hiking up the paved sidewalk up the gradually sloping side of the mountain. Mum was still having some knee issues, so after going a good ways up the sidewalk - until stairs started to break up the pathway - she stopped at a bench overlooking the landscape and waited for the rest of us to continue our hike. Dad, Ty, Jonathan and I  kept hiking up, stopping often for rests, a drink of water, or to snap a picture of the scenic view below (our guidebook said the hike would take us about 20 minutes, but we stopped so often to take pictures that it took us probably about 40 instead). When we reached the top, we looked out over the ocean on one side of the dormant volcano and over the eastern side of Jeju Island on the other. It was very green and quite beautiful.

Seongsan Ilchulbong

Our group at Seongsan Ilchulbong (Photo from Glenda Quiring)

Another group photo

Tourists lining the pathway to the top of the mountain

The view from partway up

Interesting formations

Ty with his trusty film camera

Ali nearing the top

Almost there!

The green-filled crater at the top of the mountain

View from the top

Black sand beaches

Ali at the top

Jonathan at the top

We made it!

Can you spot Mum sitting on that bench?

We didn't plan to match - really!

Ty takes a shot

A small cave we found on the way back down

Ali in the cave

Dad at the end of the hike up the mountain (Photo by Glenda Quiring)

After the hike back down, we walked around the area below the mountain and then Jonathan and I continued walking out to an overlook with a good view of the mountain. We could also see a little fishing area and restaurant. In this fishing area, "haenyeo, older female free divers, go out to sea almost every day in all kinds of weather and use "low tech gear - polystyrene floats, flippers, nets, knives, and spears - to gather seaweed, shellfish, sea cucumbers, spiky black sea urchins, octopus, and anything else edible they can catch. ... They use no oxygen tanks, but are able to hold their breath underwater for up to two minutes and reach a depth of 20m. ... Haenyeo have been free diving for generations in the waters of Jeju-do and off the coast of Japan and China. Sadly, these will be the last generation of divers because their daughters have not followed in their mothers' flippers. ... At their peak in the 1950s there were almost 30,000 haenyeo on Jeju-do, but now they number fewer than 3,000" (Lonely Planet Korea guidebook). We had watched these ladies bringing in a catch earlier in the day while we were eating our lunch before we climbed the mountain, and it was interesting to see this fascinating livelihood in action. While we were out on the overlook, Jonathan and I spotted a mother cat with two kittens. They captured our attention for about 10 minutes while we watched the kittens frolic and play as the unconcerned mother placidly looked on.

Small fishing area and restaurant where the haenyeo bring their catch

Mother cat watching her kittens play

When we rejoined the rest of our group, we headed to a small Buddhist temple near the mountain for a look around the grounds and buildings. My parents and Tyler enjoyed their first look at a Buddhist temple, and although Jonathan and I had seen and taken pictures of quite a few Buddhist temples during our eight months in Korea, I think I enjoyed this small one possibly the most of all of them. It was just so still and serene compared to the bustle and jabbering of the tourists on the mountain just a few hundred yards away. Next we made a quick stop at the gift shop, and then headed back to the bus stop for the nice ride back to Jeju-si, all of us looking forward to relaxing in our hotel after our day filled with walking.

Not a clue what this statue is all about...

Back at the hotel relaxing...and maybe resting, too

Ferry to Jeju-do

Day 6 of Quiring-family visit

We woke up on Tuesday morning, July 3, ready to head south to Jeju-do (Jeju Island). First, my brother, Tyler, walked down the street to a barber shop he had seen the night before to get a quick haircut. Ten minutes later he was back, his hair nicely shorn and he highly impressed with his new hairstyle, as well as the quickness and low cost of the haircut. Meanwhile, Jonathan had called the ferry company we wanted to take over to Jeju. Unfortunately, they were already full for that day's sailing and they only sailed once a day. We had already asked a Korean-speaking fellow English teacher at Seoul Main institute to help us get hotel reservations in Jeju-si (pronounced 'shi' - Jeju City) for that evening. The hotel staff didn't speak English and we didn't know how we'd be able to let them know if we couldn't make it that day. If at all possible, we definitely wanted to get to Jeju-do by that evening. Jonathan checked out other ferry companies in our guidebooks and on the complimentary computer in my parents' room, and after a bit of calling, he found another ferry going to Jeju-do that afternoon that had room for the five of us. The only problem was that this ferry left the mainland from Wando and we were in Mokpo.

We quickly got our things together and took a couple taxis to the intercity bus station. We arrived in ample time before the next bus out to Wando, so Jonathan, Ty, and I went next door to a Paris Baguette shop to grab some breakfast/lunch pastries for our trip. The bus trip took about two hours from Mokpo to Wando and passed through some beautiful scenery. Our bus windows, though, were quite foggy, so it was hard to get pictures of the gorgeous scenes flying by. Once in Wando, we took two more taxis to the ferry terminal, which ended up not being too far away from the bus station. Jonathan and my dad got in line and got our tickets for the ferry and finally we could relax a little. We walked around the grounds beside the ferry terminal, and about an hour or so after we arrived, we were boarding the ferry. The ride over to Jeju-do was very pleasant. The ferry was clean and not full at all. Our seats were around a six-person table, but we could have sat anywhere on the ship almost, if we'd wanted to. We also spent some time outside on the deck enjoying the sea breezes. Once we arrived in Jeju-si it was a short taxi ride from the ferry terminal to our hotel. Despite the hotel staff's lack of English, we were able to check in with minimal problems, and soon were happily relaxing in our rooms ready for several days of exploration on Jeju-do!

Huge unknown structure in Mokpo towering over the apartment buildings in the distance

It's the size of a hill!

Coming into the harbor at Wando

Nice catamaran

Our ferry, the Blue Narae

Heading to Jeju!

High-tech gangplank

Hey man

Ali

Tyler really enjoyed the leftover nori (roasted dried seaweed) we'd brought along.

Driving the boat

Looking down at the jet of water propelling the boat

Namsan and Mokpo

Day 5 of Quiring-family visit

Monday, July 2, was our last day in Seoul with my family. In the morning we hurriedly packed up the rest of our belongings in our apartment. Jonathan and my brother Tyler took a box of things to the post office to mail to Maine. Our friend Tete had told us we could leave our large suitcases - which my family would be taking back to BC with them when they flew home - in her apartment while we traveled to Jeju Island, so we took the rest of our suitcases down to her apartment below ours. Then Jonathan and I made a quick trip to the administration building to wrap up a few things, and said goodbye again to the people we met in the offices we went to. Finally we were back in our apartment, nearly ready to say goodbye to it. The last step before we left was to share the rest of our food with whoever could and would take it. Three of our friends who shared an apartment, Sandra, Rachel, and Leeza, were able to meet us at the apartment and between the three of them, they took the majority of the food we still had left over. After more hugs and some pictures together, they left to get back to work, and we finally headed out.

With all our backpacks and carry-on suitcases for our trip south, we caught two taxis to Namsan (South Mountain). Jonathan and I had been up Namsan two times already, but we really wanted my parent and Tyler to see Seoul from the top of the mountain, as well as go up N Seoul Tower and see the myriad love locks hanging all around the base of the tower. Since we hadn't been able to get there the day before, we decided to try to squeeze it in before we had to leave Seoul. Despite a lot of traffic, we finally got to the cable car station at the bottom of the mountain, bought our tickets, waited in a short line (during the wait we put all our bags in a storage room to pick up on the return trip), and soon were headed up the side of the mountain. Both my parents and Jonathan and I left love locks with the hundreds of thousands of others on the fences around N Seoul tower. Then we headed up the tower to see Seoul from the highest vantage point in the city.

Heading up the cable car

Cool mossy walls on the way up the stairs

Namsan is a popular destination for couples

Dad and Mum on a lovers bench (Photo from Glenda Quiring)

Christmas trees full of love locks (Photo by Glenda Quiring)

Our love locks - pink: parents and Ty & green: Jonathan and Ali (Photo by Glenda Quiring)

Seoul

Posing for a picture

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Found Vancouver

All too soon, though, we had to head back down the cable car, and grab our luggage to get to the KTX (Korea Express Train) station. Our KTX train was leaving from a station in a different part of town than the one Jonathan and I had always used, so we weren't too sure how to get around. We hopped in two more taxis which drove wildly through heavy traffic in downtown Seoul, and got us to the station with about 15 minutes to spare before our train departed. We had already booked our tickets, but we ran into a slight snag when Jonathan went to the counter to pick up our tickets. The ticket information he had written down was not enough and he had to rush to a complimentary computer to sign in to the KTX website and find the information the ticket agent required. We were a little nervous about making our train, but Jonathan and my dad worked as a team to get the info and rush it back to the ticket agent. Seconds after handing the agent the info, they had our tickets and we all ran through the corridor and down the escalator. Our train was right in front of us as we got off the escalator and we didn't hesitate to jump onto the closest car. Once on the train, we walked through the cars to find the one we were assigned to, and a few minutes after finding our seats the train pulled out of the station, with us thankful to be on board.

The train ride to Mokpo was, as all KTX rides are, very pleasant and much too short. We got up to 305 km/h at a couple points earlier on in the trip, but during the latter half our speeds stayed down a ways as we were on curvier tracks and went through more tunnels and smaller villages. We arrived in Mokpo in about three hours and caught a taxi to a hotel we'd found in our guidebook. It was a good hotel with a nice view of the harbour a few streets away. After settling in and relaxing for a bit we headed out to explore that area of Mokpo. We wandered the streets, finding most stores already closed. That puzzled us since most Korean stores and restaurant we'd experienced stayed open later in the evening. After about 15 minutes of walking, though, we came upon a few pedestrian-only cobblestone streets with picturesque lights changing colour arching overhead. There we found plenty of stores and restaurants still open. Tyler was the one who got to pick our restaurant that evening and he picked a bustling Korean restaurant. We all ordered (rice for me as everything else on the menu indicated quite a bit of spice and heat), and our food came soon. Jonathan found a big dollop of pepper sauce sitting on top of his soup, which he mixed in with gusto. Within a few bites, though, he learned that had been a mistake. With each bite his mouth became hotter and hotter. A few minutes into his meal he wished he'd scooped half of the pepper sauce out and only mixed in half. My parents and Ty all tried Jonathan's soup and declared it the hottest meal at the table - and probably the hottest they'd ever tasted. After supper, we went next door to Baskin Robbins, which is very popular in Korea. Baskin Robbins stores are everywhere and are usually much cleaner and much more ritzy than in North America. Then after cooling our stomachs with ice cream, we wandered back to our hotel in the heavy mist/rain that had started falling while we were inside. Soon we were in bed ready to sleep before the next part of our journey in the morning.

Lights over the streets of Mokpo (Photo by Glenda Quiring)

Jonathan cutting his noodles before tasting his very spicy soup.
Noodle-cutting scissors are typical in Korean restaurants. (Photo by Glenda Quiring)